Captain's conduct blasted as divers find more dead
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120116/D9S9NLAO1.html
By NICOLE WINFIELD and GREGORIO BORGIA
GIGLIO, Italy (AP) - Maritime authorities, passengers and mounting evidence pointed Sunday toward the captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, amid accusations that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore.
Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, bringing the confirmed death toll to five. At least 15 people were still missing, including two Americans.
The recovered bodies were discovered at an emergency gathering point near the restaurant where many of the 4,200 on board were dining when the luxury liner struck rocks or a reef off the tiny island of Giglio. The Italian news agency ANSA reported the dead were an Italian and a Spaniard.
Still, there were glimmers of hope: The rescue of three survivors - a young South Korean couple on their honeymoon and a crew member brought to shore in a dramatic airlift some 36 hours after the grounding late Friday.
Italian firefighters scuba divers approach the cruise ship Costa Concordia leaning on its side, the day after it ran aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. A helicopter on Sunday airlifted a third survivor from the capsized hulk of a luxury cruise ship 36 hours after it ran aground off the Italian coast, as prosecutors confirmed they were investigating the captain for manslaughter charges and abandoning the ship. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
FULL story at link.
Rhiannon12866
(205,161 posts)Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The captain of a Carnival Corp. cruise liner may have made very serious judgment mistakes before and after his ship capsized off Italys Tuscan coast, killing at least 5 people, the ships operator said.
Costa Crociere, the Carnival line that runs the ship, said it seems Captain Francesco Schettino sailed too close to the island of Giglio and didnt follow company emergency procedures, according to a statement in Italian yesterday. Schettino was arrested and accused of manslaughter, abandoning the ship and causing the wreck late on Jan. 13.
Rescuers are still searching for as many as 17 people missing from the Costa Concordia. About 60 people were injured after the ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew hit submerged rocks in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The ships insurers may face total costs of about 405 million euros ($512 million), said one person with knowledge of the policies.
In terms of physical damage, this will be one of biggest claims around, said Eamonn Flanagan, an insurance analyst at Shore Capital Group Ltd. in Liverpool, England.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-15/carnival-ship-captain-held-in-italy-as-death-toll-reaches-5.html
The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Francesco Schettino is taken into custody in Grosseto, Italy
Lasher
(27,561 posts)Going close in and blowing the siren. It had been done before but this jackass had to get in extra close. There's some pretty stupid guys who live around here but all of them are smarter than this guy.
He left the ship before the passengers were off, then lied about it. The Coast Guard tried to get him to go back and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone was safely off the vessel but he ignored them.
Rhiannon12866
(205,161 posts)I've never heard of that before, but it makes sense that something like this exists. I have been on the cruise ships on Lake George, LOL, but they're already close enough to shore to see the people who live along the lake and they often exchange greetings.
I saw the gigantic rock embedded in the bottom of the ship, so this explains what happened.
That's bad enough, but the fact that he abandoned the ship and left his passengers is a whole lot worse. He deserves whatever they throw at him...
Lasher
(27,561 posts)He channeled Condi Rice (no-one "could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile" when he said the rocks were not on the chart. What an incredible fool! All you have to do is haul out a chart and look at it to see he's lying. Next he'll say, 'I didn't hit any rocks.' with that bigass rock sticking out of the huge hole in the ship.
He's been arrested, but what about the person/people who hired him? How could they have possibly put this obvious dickhead in such a position of authority? Questions need to be put to them too.
Violet_Crumble
(35,961 posts)I haven't been following it all that closely, so I may have missed it, but on a massive and newish ship like that don't they have all sorts of super-duper technology that would have the ship warning them long before they hit anything?
muriel_volestrangler
(101,301 posts)Who was on the bridge and when, what orders had been left, were there any systems failures, and so on. I suspect this will have taken a combination of idiocy (like "get really close to the island to say 'hi'" , and incompetence (like "I thought that alarm just meant we were close, not on a collision course" , at least.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Skittles
(153,147 posts)1monster
(11,012 posts)obamanut2012
(26,068 posts)He stated the maps didn't mark the rocks, but the above say they do, and the maps I've seen sure do. They also say that island is notorious for it's rocky bottom.
Where they (Captain and First Officer) drunk, screwing around, or what???
Skittles
(153,147 posts)MiddleFingerMom
(25,163 posts).
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TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)...of the Titanic sinking.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
BrightKnight
(3,567 posts)There is no excuse for his conuct during or after the event. That was criminal negligence. He is not fit to be captain of an inner-tube.
jannyk
(4,810 posts)Rescue crews found the body of a male in a corridor of the vessel early on Monday. Officials said he was probably a passenger, based on the type of life jacket he was wearing.
On Sunday, emergency teams recovered the bodies of two elderly men trapped in a flooded section of the partially submerged Costa Concordia.
The bodies are being taken to the mainland for identification.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16570281
17 still missing
Richard in Athens
(1 post)Almost exactly 150 years ago, in August 1862, the Great Eastern, then by far the largest ship afloat, "discovered" what is now known as the Great Eastern Rock at the entrance to Long Island Sound. She was proceeding very carefully with a pilot aboard in waters that were for a ship of her unprecedented draft, uncharted. Brunel's remarkable 693 ft long double hull struck the previously unknown underwater pinnacle and suffered an 83 ft long and 9 ft wide gash on her bottom. Mercifully, the inner hull remained completely watertight and she completed her voyage to Flushing with a slight list to port and no loss of life. She was eventually repaired and sailed for many more years.
The moral of this story is that huge ships must be "driven" very carefully! It is now clear that the Costa Concordia was breaking this rule with daredevil aplomb. (More correctly, without aplomb!) The photos show a huge hole with its amazing captured rock on the side we can see. Must there be even worse damage on the other side?
The Sea Diamond disaster some years ago at Santorini here in Greece seems to have been an accident more similar to the Great Eastern's where a "new" rock was discovered. The earlier sinking of an island ferry off Paros will probably prove to be a better analogy to the Costa Concordia's tragedy: no one on the bridge was really paying attention on a calm night in very familiar waters. They couldn't possibly have meant to be so close to land, I hope.
Rene
(1,183 posts)made me think it was way too top heavy and unable to sustain ANY list and remain upright.
It was a foregone conclusion that it was going to go all the way over. I've wondered about all cruise ships with all those massive high and heavy decks.